The field of biotechnology has grown tremendously in the last 20 years. This growth has been due to many factors, some of which include the improvements in the equipment available for bioreactors, the increased understanding of biological systems and increased knowledge as to the interactions of materials (such as monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins) with the various systems of the human body.
Improvements in equipment have allowed for larger volumes and lower cost for the production of biologically derived materials such as recombinant proteins. This is especially prevalent in the area of pharmaceuticals, where the successes of many types of new drug therapies have been directly due to the ability to mass produce these materials through protein-based manufacturing methods.
One of the key components that is utilized in the manufacturing processes of new biologically based pharmaceuticals is the bioreactor and the ancillary processes associated therewith. An area of growth in the bioreactor field has been with the perfusion process. The perfusion process is distinguished from the fed-batch process by its lower capital cost and continuous (rather than batch) operation.
In the fed-batch process, a culture is seeded in a bioreactor. The gradual addition of a fresh volume of selected nutrients during the growth cycle is used to improve productivity and growth. The product is recovered after the culture is harvested. The discontinuous fed-batch bioreactor process has been attractive because of its simplicity and also due to carryover from well-known fermentation processes. However, a fed-batch bioreactor has high start-up costs, and generally has a large volume to obtain a cost-effective amount of product at the end of the growth cycle. After the batch is completed, the bioreactor must be cleaned and sterilized, resulting in nonproductive downtime.
A perfusion bioreactor processes a continuous supply of fresh media that is fed into the bioreactor while growth-inhibiting byproducts are constantly removed. The nonproductive downtime can be reduced or eliminated with a perfusion bioreactor process. The cell densities achieved in perfusion culture (30-100 million cells/mL) are typically higher than for fed-batch modes (5-25 million cells/mL). These improvements have led to lower contamination in the harvest and better yields without significant increase in cost. However, a perfusion bioreactor requires a cell retention device to prevent escape of the culture when byproducts are being removed. These cell retention systems add a level of complexity to the perfusion process, requiring management, control, and maintenance for successful operation. Operational issues such as malfunction or failure of the cell retention equipment has previously been a problem with perfusion bioreactors, which has limited their attractiveness in the past.